Welcome to the fourth edition of my Every Day Stack Updates, it has been a year of doing these, oh what a year. This entry is later than I would have liked it to be but hey here we are.
My youtube channel side project clack labs is going really well, I got selected as an Optimizely (Episerver) MVP, and I got both my vaccinations. A great quarter I’d say.
Off we go.
Removed from the stack
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Clubhouse: Turns out the thing we all thought we wanted we couldn’t have. I imagined being able to open the app at any time and listen in on stimulating conversations by some of the greatest minds all over the world, instead we got flooded with mediocrity and rooms of marketers wanting you to sign up to their newsletters. The main reason I think is that said greatest minds have no real way to realise value out of using Clubhouse rather than say their own podcast (which also tends to be better produced and with the needed preplanning to make the points clear and well presented). Also time zones are a fundamental problem for this medium.
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Audeze LCD-2 Classic: No ragrets with this one, they are absolutely amazing. Like I said last time they seem to open up and really shine at listening levels right at the upper limit of what I’d normally listen at so I found it difficult to use them for anything other than dedicated listening sessions. Being the minimalist I am it didn’t sit right with me to have headphones that expensive sit around for occasional use, so I let them go to a good home where they can be appreciated more.
Added to the stack
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Youtube Premium: This right here is the game-changer. For years Youtube has been my go-to for my favourite pass time of edutainment videos and being able to dive into the world without ads made my watch time skyrocket within days of getting the premium subscription. Screen time says this is consistently in my top 3 apps and I can’t imagine going back to the mid-roll ad riddled mess that is the current free Youtube viewing experience. The math of “how much do you value your time?” easily justifies the price too, so nothing but two thumbs up from me.
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(Apple) Maps: Yes really! It’s good now!! It has dark mode too!!1. Ok no the reviews and exploring for interesting looking places nearby using the app are still not nearly as good as with Google Maps, but the Apple Watch integration is really really good. I’ve mainly been cycling to most places I go outside of walking distance and using Apple Maps I now get turn by turn directions on my wrist showing me the distance to the next turn and what the road layout ahead looks like, along with a vibration to let me know it’s time to look at my watch. It’s pretty ideal and I take the wrong turn at least 70% less now.
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iPad Pro 12.9” & Magic Keyboard: Ever since I got my first iPad Pro back in 2017 it quickly became my go-to device for reading and watching content, although I never felt the need to upgrade from it. That is until the new 2021 M1 iPad Pro came out with its jaw dropping liquid retina XDR display, I absolutely love this display. The Magic Keyboard is expensive and along with the new iPad it’s a weird deal pricing wise as you could easily get a specced out 13” Macbook Pro. That said as you would imagine it works well, the hinge and magnets are strong, it’s lappable to type on, and the trackpad is fantastic. Overall I’m happy and it’s getting loads of use, plus my writing and digital note taking have increased almost exponentially.
Proving grounds
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Moody: It’s one of the fairly generic mood tracking app types, no real reason for picking this one other than it has a beautiful design (similar to Bear Focus Timer that I tried for Pomodoro in a way). I’m trying mood tracking more as an experiment to see if I can be consistent enough with it to get any useful data back out of it, more info about that next time I guess.
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About 5000 pub apps: Please please please please please please please please please someone build a good generic pub ordering app that all pubs can use for getting food and drinks to my table number. I’ve got way too many of these now and they are almost all terrible. Some are guest only, some login with the same accounts in non-obvious ways, some use different accounts where you would expect the same account to work, some log you out if you blink, some take some cards, others take Apple Pay (I like these the best), and all of them absolutely wreck your inbox with order update emails. Uber Eats team I’m looking at you, or maybe this will be the push I need to commit to one of the others. Winner takes all time.
That’s all for now, see you in three months, maybe.
Thanks for stopping by.